PDF/A is the ISO-standardized version of PDF for long-term archiving, so your pages look the same years from now. Drop a file in below: it is checked first, then converted inside your browser with a lossless engine or Ghostscript. No server, no account, no upload.
or choose a file from your device
It loads directly into the page using your browser's own PDF engine — no network request involved.
A preflight finds anything PDF/A forbids. Clean files convert losslessly; the rest go through Ghostscript (WebAssembly), and only as a last resort are pages redrawn as images.
The archive-ready file saves straight to your downloads folder, with a short report of what changed.
Contracts, invoices, medical and legal records stay on your machine instead of passing through a third party's server.
Processing happens in your browser's memory, so it isn't rationed by an upload cap or a paywall for larger files.
Once this page is loaded, converting a file doesn't need the network again.
PDF/A is an ISO standard (ISO 19005) for archiving documents. It requires everything needed to display the file — fonts, color information, metadata — to live inside the file, and it bans features that can break over time, like JavaScript, encryption and external links to content.
Choose PDF/A-2b unless someone asks for another level. Pick PDF/A-1b if an authority or archive specifically requires it; it is stricter, so more files need flattening. PDF/A-3b has the same page rules as 2b. The "b" means the visual appearance is preserved reliably.
No. The conversion runs entirely in your browser tab. Your PDF is never sent to a server, and closing the tab discards it.
Yes, in nearly all cases. Files that already meet the rules keep everything untouched, and the Ghostscript engine keeps text selectable too. Only a file that falls through to flattening loses selectable text. Run OCR afterwards if you need searchable text.
Flattening is the last resort. PDF/A needs every font embedded, so a PDF that relies on fonts it never saved can't always be repaired. Auto first tries the lossless route, then Ghostscript, which embeds fonts it can find, converts CMYK to sRGB and flattens transparency. Only if both fail are pages redrawn as images, and the result report names the reason.
Ghostscript is the open-source PDF engine many servers use for PDF/A. Here it runs inside your browser as WebAssembly, in a background worker so the page stays responsive. The first use downloads about 15 MB, which your browser then caches. Your file still never leaves your device.
As soon as you add a file, the tool counts pages and fonts and lists anything that would break PDF/A at the level you selected, such as unembedded fonts, CMYK colors or encryption. It also tells you which route Auto will take.
The file is built to PDF/A requirements: identification metadata, a color output intent, a file ID, matching document info, and prohibited features removed. For legal, court or regulatory submissions, confirm with a validator such as veraPDF (free), because validators can be stricter than any converter.
PDF/A embeds fonts and a color profile, which adds size. Flattened files are larger still, since each page is stored as a high-resolution image. Use the PDF Compressor afterwards only if it keeps the PDF/A markers; re-saving can strip them.
PDF/A forbids encryption. A PDF locked with only a permissions password can usually be flattened here. A PDF that needs a password just to open can't be read, so remove the password first.
There is no server limit. Your device's memory is the limit; files up to roughly 100 MB are usually fine on a modern computer, and flattening very long documents takes longer.